back to article Samsung sets back smartphone launch for Steve J

Samsung has claimed it did indeed decide to delay the announcement of its next Googlephone, dubbed the Nexus Prime, out of respect for the late Steve Jobs. "We decided it was not the right time to announce a new product while the world was expressing tribute to Steve Jobs' passing," a Samsung spokesman told the Reuters …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    unfair

    It does seem rather unfair for Google to launch even more iPhone killers only a few days afterwards. iPhone owners are still in mourning and this would be even more distressing for them to see their underwhelming iPhone4s looking so naff compared to the latest and greatest Android 4.0 devices.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Andy? Is that you?

  2. Lloyd
    FAIL

    FFS

    He's dead, he won't mind. Will you be calling off all of your Apple court cases out of respect too? No? Thought not.

    1. Bumpy Cat
      Devil

      Mostly Apple-initiated

      Given that most of the court cases have been launched by Apple to attack Samsung, I'm sure Samsung would very gladly "call off" all the court cases.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Respect, the new "don't do evil"

    As title says.

    In reality Google+Samsung learnt that Apple was about to release iOS 5 + iCloud just one day after (Wednesday) their own event. That plus the ongoing news of SJ's death would mean little coverage for them.

    By delaying they have a chance of people actually paying attention, plus they even get brownie points from those who believe this "respect" PR bs.

    1. Craigness

      Attention

      Nobody pays attention to Android. If they did then they'd not be so thrilled by icloud when Android has had it since day 1.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Craigness

        If you paid attention you'd know that iCloud is a bit different from what Google/Android offers.

        1. Craigness

          Different

          In what way? Is it that icloud has a better name? Or because developers actually use it?

          Icloud makes your data available to all your devices, but the apps don't have to do anything with it. BackupAgent makes the data available to "an application that wishes to participate in the backup and restore mechanism", but the app doesn't have to participate (and they tend not to). It lets you sync settings across android devices as well as back up.

          http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/backup/BackupAgent.html

          It's API level 8, which is OS version 2.2. Cloud sync was from day 1. Remember, Google has basically no desktop apps, so as soon as something is synced on your phone and available in a browser it's done what icloud does. So it's not hard to see where the idea came from, but Apple's control over the hardware and software means it has a much wider applicability, and a desktop/web api makes sense on Apple where it doesn't on Android (why would your Android mp3 player sync playlists when the developer doesn't have a desktop version and you're not firmly pushed towards using it even if they did?). All in all, Google's inventiveness gets no attention.

          Apart from Twitter, I can't think of anything on my Android which should be cloud-synced with my desktop and isn't already. Twitter wouldn't need an OS-based service to sync my position in my feeds though.

  4. HP Cynic

    Bah, my dumbphone contract expired a few months ago and here I sit on 1-month rolling "contracts" waiting to commit to one of the 3 available SmartPhone paths (I already discount Blackberry).

    Come on Android set your Ice Cream Stall up so I can compare it to the Apples and Mangos!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So it's delayed because of Steve Job's death? Why? Was he writing Ice Cream Sandwich and that's why it's late.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah right

    The real reason is they are waiting for a quiet news day as even by their own admission it just isn't very news worthy. At least they got that part right.

  7. uhuznaa

    I suspect they got thrown totally off their script not by The Steve dying but by Apple not going the "large screen, gimmicky case" route as all expected and instead coming with the 4S and Siri. Demoing a 4.6" screen under curved glass you need both hands to use when Apple stays with the (meanwhile) iconic straight steel/glass case on a phone you don't need even one hand to use might prove to be totally blunt.

    I bet they're waiting to get their hands on the 4S and check out Siri. If this works as advertised they may find themselves suddenly in a new game that Apple started while Google and Samsung were still playing with themselves.

    1. Craigness

      Pay attention, Bond

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0A-zCis_A0

  8. Andrew Jones 2
    Meh

    Android has had voice actions since at least Android 2.1 but in Android 2.2 (released last summer) they got even better - just like Apple's new fancy voice assistant - Android 2.2 users can also:

    Send an email, Send a text, Set an Alarm, Call Someone, Do a Google Search, Get driving instructions - all by speaking to their phone.

    Here is a review of the system by pocketnow http://youtu.be/0L_IhqGcRM8?t=8m32s and just like the Apple system - most users will probably never use it.

    I have already noticed a huge issue with the Apple system - in the advert for it it is all about how you can use it handsfree - but the reality is the more complicated stuff (getting share prices, finding a restaurant, looking up the weather, etc etc) only deliver the information you requested to the screen and is NOT read out by the TTS. - Android has this issue too.

    1. uhuznaa

      Look at http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/05/iphone-4s-what-can-you-say-to-siri/ for a list of commands that Siri is supposed to parse and understand.

      Can you say "Reschedule my appointment with Dr. Manning to next Monday at 9am" to any Android smartphone and have it do just this?

  9. PaulR79
    Flame

    Respect or surprise?

    I'm willing to bet both Google and Samsung were expecting a lot more than the iPhone 4S and when it was released they kinda went, "That's it?!" It may well be a step up from the iPhone 4 and earlier models but comparing it purely from a hardware point of view Android phones have had better specs for months already. The new Google phone was supposed to be something new and introduce ICS as well so perhaps they are taking extra time to do last minute checks of the software now that they don't have an iPhone 5 or similar to outdo.

    That's my first thought, the second is that combined with a relatively lacklustre iPhone 4S they have a potentially far bigger fish to go after with Nokia supposedly announcing their first Windows Phone later in the month / early next month. Why waste time pounding on Apple and iOS when they can stick it to Windows Phone AND Nokia?

    I suspect numerous downvotes are incoming now, just my thoughts.

    1. uhuznaa

      "It may well be a step up from the iPhone 4 and earlier models but comparing it purely from a hardware point of view Android phones have had better specs for months already. "

      I keep reading this over and over... Which specs exactly are better with Android phones for months already and which phones and which specs exactly you're talking about?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      1,000,000 iPhone 4Ss sold on first 24h - lacklustre?

      If they really are following your genius plan (which I'm sure they aren't) then they'll be thinking again now.

      Fortunately they've allowed themselves a couple of weeks to rethink the strategy.

    3. ScissorHands
      Go

      You might be right

      At least the Nokia fanboys are up in arms because there was the possibility of Samsung and Google doing the shindig in the same day and same city as the Nokia World Forum (where supposedly the first WP7 Microkia will be show).

      http://mynokiablog.com/2011/10/07/samsung-and-google-trying-to-rain-on-nokia-world-2011-with-identical-launchnokia-world-video/

  10. Brian Allan

    Courtesy to a tee...

    I can honestly believe a S. Korean company would do this out of sensitivity. I'm sure no US company would have this degree of forethought!

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